Beyond Liberal Politics? European Modernity and the Nation-State

Abstract

This chapter seeks to examine the thesis that contemporary European politics is undergoing a profound change. This thesis argues that the central institution of European politics over the past 500 years — the nation-state — is being radically transformed and so too are many of the aspects of politics most associated with that institution — notions of sovereignty, of civil society and its relation to the state, political economy and the nature of representative, liberal democratic politics. But are these transformations imagined or real? What are their implications for the evolving practices of European politics? What do they presage, if anything, for politics more generally?